1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a portable warming apparatus for cups utilizing butane burned in a combustion cage. In particular, it has reference to an apparatus with automatic shut-off provided by a temperature sensing device which includes a thermocouple located below the combustion cage.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Available devices on the market designed to keep the contents of a cup warm mostly use an electric heating element typically requiring access to line current. Access to line current, of course, restricts the portability of such a device. Even when line current was available through household outlets, the necessary cord stretching from the apparatus to the outlet was, at best, inconvenient and at times dangerous when the cord presented an obstacle to the free passage of diners around the table.
Attempts have been made in the past to overcome the need for an electric cord. U.S. Pat. No. 4,185,614 to Eiko Egawa shows a device with a wick burning liquid fuel in a saucer arrangement. U.S. Pat. No. 4,191,173 to Dedeian, et al. shows a liquid fuel reservoir contained in the cup's handle feeding a burner located beneath a domed portion of the bottom wall of the cup. Neither of the two disclosed portable apparatus, however, had a temperature control mechanism. Thus, the heating of the cup and its contents continued even after the desired serving temperature was reached. Such additional heating could bring the temperature of the contents of the cup to the point of burning the lips of the drinker, and sometimes even heat the cup contents sufficiently to evaporate all the contents of the cup.